Romney demanded that Cahill, who also serves as chairman
of the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management
board (PRIM), not try to install Steven Weddle as the new
executive director at the next meeting of the nine-member
pension panel October 7, according to a Boston Globe
report.

This comes after last month’s sudden dismissal of James
Hearty, when Cahill drummed up the necessary support from
four of the other board members (See
MA Pension Executive Hit With Sudden
Ouster
) to call for Hearty’s removal.
At the time, Cahill praised Hearty’s
performance, but said he was frustrated at what he
felt was an agency that was too entrenched. He cited, for
example, the agency’s refusal to release records about the
fund’s investments in venture capital and private equity
funds, even though it had been ordered to do so by the
Massachusetts secretary of state and attorney general’s
offices (See
Massachusetts Pension Fund Under Fire
).

Search By Committee

Romney thinks something may be rotten in the state of
Massachusetts and is demanding the PRIM board appoint a
search committee to “thoughtfully, thoroughly, and openly
consider a field of candidates” for the job.
Noting that most board members know little of Weddle –
who has been doing corporate finance, venture capital
investing, and economic development from postings in
Lusaka, Zambia, and Johannesburg, South Africa since
1993 – Romney spokesman
Eric Fehrnstrom added, “the governor believes board members
have a duty to make sure they are selecting the most
qualified individual to run the fund,” and that the “best
way to fulfill that is by establishing a search committee
of the board to consider a large field of candidates for
the position of executive director.”

Further echoing the governor’s comments was top Romney
financial aide and the governor’s designee to the
$29-billion state pension fund’s board, Peter
Schwarzenbach.
In a letter to Cahill, he referred to the “purported
termination” of Hearty, and expressed concern that the
“selection” of Weddle “was without benefit of an open and
organized search process and without the deliberation and
involvement of all of the board members.”

However, Cahill is standing fast, telling the Globe, “I
believe we have the best person for this position and I’m
going forward with this, I believe we have the support of
the board to do it.”
He said an internal search his office conducted for a new
executive director “really isn’t that much different than
previous processes” that selected executive directors.

To support his drive, Cahill pointed out that
Hearty and the two previous executive directors either
worked at the pension fund or served on its board before
their appointments, and that Weddle would be the first
outsider in more a decade to run the agency.